1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally directed to an information processing apparatus, a print control program, a storage medium, an image forming apparatus and a printing system, and in particular to an information processing apparatus, a print control program, a storage medium, an image forming apparatus and a printing system, all of which generate print data.
2. Description of the Related Art
A printer driver converts print settings to PJL (Printer Job Language) in order to create a print command to be sent to a printer. Conventionally, printer drivers have been known which generate an intermediate command in the process of converting printing settings to a print command (see Patent Document 1, for example). By causing an external module capable of processing intermediate commands to cooperate with a printer driver, it is possible to provide extra value, such as print preview display and a change, addition or deletion of a print command.
Print commands are dependent on functions of a corresponding printer, and intermediate commands are dependent on the print commands. Accordingly, if the functions of the printer are extended, the print commands (PJL) are also extended. This requires extension of the intermediate commands in such a manner as to accommodate the extended print commands.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2009-146321    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Application Publication No. 2008-186254
However, conventional printer drivers lack flexibility for external specification changes since their functions of generating intermediate commands are fixedly embedded in the printer drivers.
For example, in the case of extending functions of a printer, it is necessary to generate intermediate commands that accommodate the extended functions, rebuild the printer driver in such a manner as to output print commands based on the intermediate commands, and then reinstall the printer driver.
Also, when it is necessary to extend intermediate commands in accordance with function extension of an external module, a printer driver needs to be rebuilt and reinstalled.
Furthermore, in the case of accommodating a data format specific to a new external module in order for the cooperation with the new external module, a printer driver also needs to be rebuilt and reinstalled.